Katana Kami – A Way of the Samurai story is a spin off game which is set in the same universe as the PS2 classic, Way of the Samurai.
The main story focuses on your character whom is a lone rōnin that just happened to come across a feud involving a bunch of debt collectors, a Blacksmith and his daughter.
Long story short, the Blacksmith’s daughter then gets kidnapped and the lone rōnin then agrees to help out.
The gameplay itself does feel rather limited as for the most part you are simply trapped in a tiny village that doesn’t really have much going for it. You do occasionally get some random Samurai warriors walking around which can invoke fights and that is basically your only entertainment in that area.
However, most of the action and where you will no doubt be spending much of your time is in a strange world within the base of a lone tree.
In this foreign world lies several demons and untold mysteries and it is there where you will no doubt be forming many of your headaches as you continue to play the game.
This game as no doubt many other players will agree, does indeed play very similar to the Dark Souls and Demon Souls type games perhaps even more so the Nioh and Sekiro games, I unfortunately have discovered through my many hours of playing, that this game can be very unforgiving at times.
You are penalised for many different aspects of the game, for example if you die you will loose all of your gear and coin and if the game sees that you have been playing for too long, you are again penalised and are thus chased by a very powerful demon.
A lot of this mysterious world has the same layout too and is quite small, thus in all honesty the whole game can get rather repetitive over time, which is unfortunate.
The story and exploration was rather lacking. A lot of it was repetitive. It felt more like a challenge run through a samurai nostalgic world.
There are however, several ways to improve your character’s abilities and gear to make things a little easier at least.
We couldn’t help but notice that the customization was rather lacking. Though there is the option to improve both weapons and armor. Which I would recommend if you plan to survive the dangers that await. Alongside that you can also obtain certain scrolls to improve your skills.
There are also many different side quests to take although from our knowledge they do not require too much effort, most of them simply require you to reach a certain floor of this mysterious world.
There are other side features too including Newspaper articles that tell you of what the different Samurai clans and factions are doing in the background.
Also, though not exactly new to the Way of the Samurai series your choices throughout the game does indeed have an impact on the overall gameplay, so you do have to think and strategize before just running into things and making rash decisions.
OVERALL:
As fans of the previous Way of the Samurai games we can safely say that this game is nothing like them. For one, the previous games allowed you to explore more areas, there was more customization and to be honest it was much easier too, perhaps too much so.
As a massive fan of the much older Way Of The Samurai titles, it was great to see the series make some kind of revival.
Anyway something that we do like with this new title is the fact that a lot of the amazing soundtrack from the past games does make a return alongside some of the past characters too. Thus making this title a nostalgic one. One thing is for certain we are very happy to see Way of the Samurai make a return and hopefully its a sign of things to come too.
If I where to sum this title up in a few simple words then it would be that the game is rather basic, nostalgic and unforgiving.
Now where did I lose all of my gear this time?..
Developer: Acquire / Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Release Date: February 20th 2020
Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4
Genre: Action Adventure
Main Story Length:
Platinum Trophy Length:
Platform Reviewed On: PS4
SCORE: 3/5
Has been playing video games for her entire life so far. Grew up with the Sega Master System II. Her favourite games include both Resident Evil 2 (OG) and Final Fantasy VIII.
She now writes articles about video games.
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